Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent

Reviewing a biography of Beaumarchais, David A Bell, dean of the humanities faculty at Johns Hopkins University, has the following to say:

Beaumarchais was a manic character, of the sort who would now be diagnosed at a young age with Attention Deficit Disorder or something similar, and placed on medication designed to ensure a long [...]

If they can’t get you coming, they’ll get you going

I’ve been doing some reading about personality disorders, and I came across the contribution of one Harry Guntrip to definitions of the schizoid personality type.  There are nine alleged characteristics of this personality type which Guntrip pulled out of his arse described, one of which is withdrawnness:

A life at least bearable

In 1934 Samuel Beckett wrote to his cousin about the coming of spring:

I think of it as a victory over darkness, nightmares, sweats, panic and madness, and of the crocuses and daffodils as the promise of a life at least bearable, once enjoyed but in a past so remote that all trace, even remembrance of [...]

Why do little girls like pink?

I have to be honest, I had never heard of the Science: So what? So everything campaign until representatives from it were invited by the BBC to provide model answers to the ‘difficult questions’ that children ask their parents.  Most of the answers the representatives from the campaign give are quite good, although one or [...]

It’s ok, I can do this

Right, well, it’s dawned on me that I was somewhat ungracious in my reaction to your comments on my last post.  (In other words, I was a prick.)  Apologies if you were caught up in the middle of it.  (In other words, I’m sorry I was a prick.)  The thing is, I was on my [...]

I’m conducting an experiment

Introduction
The purpose of this experiment is to investigate the responses of local Mental Health services under certain controlled circumstances.  It is hoped that the data emerging from this experiment may confirm or refute the hypothesis that people who work in MH services demonstrate a high prevalence of behavioural traits that can be classified as ‘difficult-case-avoidant’.
 

What causes mental illness: a follow-up post

My last post received several interesting comments, which, as always, I’m extremely grateful for.  It really is a wonder to me that there are people who are interested or bothered enough to reply to something I’ve written.  As always, I tried to have a bit of a discussion with the people who had commented, but [...]

What causes mental illness?

There’s a long and dishonourable tradition of blaming the mentally ill for their own illness.  For a long time, people thought the mentally ill were possessed by evil spirits or demons.  Here, for example, is the description of a man who was ‘exorcised’ by Jesus:

And when he [Jesus] was come out of the ship, immediately [...]

Eek! They’re stealing my thoughts!

Now then, don’t panic, it’s ok, I’m not wearing a tin-foil helmet just yet…
But, still, paranoia can be very tiresome.  Over the last couple of days, two posts have gone up on Mental Nurse (actually several have gone up – I mean two that are relevant).  The first was on the subject of Daily-Mail-Gay-Adoption-Gate.  The [...]

Television, the drug of the nation

The title of this post is, of course, stolen from the 1992 track of the same name by The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy.  Yes, that’s right, they did have a startlingly naff name, but they were a good act, and also released what’s still, 17 years later, one of the very few rap tracks that [...]